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Though the RCMP have shown many others knew, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he blames no one other than Nigel Wright and Sen. Mike Duffy in trying to influence Deloitte’s forensic review.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper greets Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz after announcing the opening of the first section of the new CentrePort Canada Way expressway in Winnipeg on Friday. (JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

OTTAWA—Nobody other than Nigel Wright and Sen. Mike Duffy should be held responsible for a bid to halt or alter an independent outside audit into Duffy’s expenses, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday.

Though the RCMP have shown many others knew, Harper made clear at a campaign-style stop in Winnipeg he blames no one else who was actively involved in trying to influence Deloitte’s forensic review.

Harper was there to promote a new highway and the chances of the Conservative candidate in Monday’s byelection in Manitoba.

Asked what Canadians should conclude about the culture of integrity within the PMO that his staff were trying “to alter or influence the independent report by Deloitte,” Harper said “there are two individuals who are under investigation. . . . They are Mr. Duffy and Mr. Wright.”

Harper defended his office, saying it has provided complete co-operation with the RCMP.

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When asked whether he believes there are other people in his entourage who have hidden something, Harper said, “No.”

“The people responsible for this payment — which was not reported in a proper manner — these people are responsible for their actions. The RCMP has examined documents for months now and they’ve conducted interviews with the individuals involved and the RCMP reached the conclusion as we had. We are working together with the RCMP that these people be held accountable.”

In an extraordinary move for a sitting prime minister, Harper last summer waived parliamentary privilege over all PMO emails and communications stored on Privy Council Office computer databases, and ordered everything released to the RCMP. It led to an avalanche of 260,000 emails, which a team has winnowed to 2,600 of potential evidentiary value.

The email trail reveals Harper got periodic memos. On Feb. 18 a memo from Wright, Perrin and Rogers tells him PMO staff was working with Duffy “on a plan for him to return money.”

In a March 22 memo to brief Harper on the Senate efforts to handle the mess, Wright tells him the PMO is working to resolve the Duffy matter through “his repayment.”

On May 14, when CTV broke news of the secret payment, Wright told press aides “The prime minister knows, in broad terms only, that I personally assisted Duffy when I was getting him to agree to repay the expenses.”

Based on the PMO communications, the RCMP says many people other than Wright in Harper’s PMO, and at least three senators, were involved in discussions about influencing the Deloitte audit, as per Duffy’s demands, as well as in efforts to tone down a Senate report on Duffy.

In fact, the RCMP document indicates the first suggestion that the Deloitte audit could be halted by Duffy’s agreement to repay money owing appears to have come from Sen. David Tkachuk.

On Feb. 20, Tkachuck is said to have phoned Wright and said he and Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen would have a Senate steering committee stop the audit if Duffy repaid. It was a suggestion Duffy’s lawyer, Janice Payne, then took up, after Tkachuk and Duffy talked.

It was added into Duffy’s list of demands before he would agree to repay — in theory — and stop claiming he was entitled to have sought housing money from the Senate.

The prime minister’s own legal counsel, Benjamin Perrin, stickhandled the talks with Duffy’s lawyer, apparently at Wright’s request, according to emails examined by the Mounties.

Sen. Irving Gerstein, head of the Conservative Fund of Canada, took up Wright’s request to “work through senior contacts” at Deloitte to see whether the audit’s direction could be changed, and reported back it would not.

Perrin, Wright’s executive assistant David Van Hemmen, PMO issues management director Chris Woodcock and parliamentary affairs manager Patrick Rogers were all aware of Wright’s eventual decision to personally cover Duffy’s $90,000 cost, as were three top party officials, including Sen. Irving Gerstein who had balked at covering Duffy’s fees with party funds when the bill ran well past the $32,000 mark.

But Harper stated clearly Friday he holds no one else but Wright and Duffy responsible, and believes the RCMP has concluded the same.

Harper said he wouldn’t play political “analyst” when asked whether the scandal has had an impact on Monday’s byelection race in Brandon-Souris. But he proceeded to plug his own candidate as the best choice for voters.

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